Georgia's National Universities: A Look at the Numbers

With CSU's ascent into U.S. News & World Report's most prominent category of National Universities, Turner Business decided to provide some side-by-side comparisons on the Georgia-based institutions included in this category. The table below provides the institutional age and the U.S. News & World Report ranking of each of these 12 institutions that call Georgia home. Of course, the oldest, at 241 years old, is the University of Georgia. The Athens-based institution is followed by August University and Mercer University, which are 198 years old and 193 years old, respectively. Emory University sits close in fourth at 190 years of age. At 38 years old, Clark Atlanta is the youngest of the Georgia-based national universities. Kennesaw State is next at 63 years old, while CSU is third youngest at 68 years old.

The other columns in the table present some of the data U.S. News & World Report uses to rank national colleges and universities. Among these are acceptance rates and 4-year graduation rates. As indicated at the top of the table, Emory University and Georgia Tech admit only 10% and 13%, respectively, of the students who apply. They are followed by the University of Georgia, which has a 34% acceptance rate. The acceptance rates of the remaining institutions exceed 50%. Among this group, CSU is, at least functionally, an open-admissions institution; its acceptance rate is 99%. Georgia Southern University's acceptance rate of 87% is closest to that for CSU. Emory University boasts the highest graduation rate of 82%, followed by the University of Georgia at 75% and Georgia Tech at 66%. Mercer University rounds out the institutions with a graduation rate exceeding 50%. At the bottom of the group is Kennesaw State University with a graduation rate of only 22%. CSU's graduation rate of 23% is closest to that of Kennesaw State University. The average of the high school GPAs of the institutions' incoming classes generally rises from the bottom of the table to the top. CSU's 3.2 GPA is the lowest, while the 3.9 GPAs at the University of Georgia and Mercer University are at the top. Close behind these two is Emory University's 3.8. Lastly, in recent years U.S. News & World Report has begun compiling metrics for faculty research productivity to utilize in its ranking process. One of these is the share of an institution's faculty publications that appear in the top 25% of academic journals. Data for this metric appears in the last column of the table. Emory University leads the pack at 0.66, with the University of Georgia close behind at 0.64. Each with a share of 0.63, Georgia Tech and Georgia State are almost tied with Georgia. Bringing up the rear with a share of 0.41 is Clark Atlanta University. CSU's share of 0.49 exceeds that of Clark Atlanta University, the University of West Georgia, Mercer University, and Valdosta State University. Of these four, only two are part of the University System of Georgia.